Easter!!!

     Easter Sunday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Worship was awesome.  They had a choir and orchestra and everything.  Thanks to all my friends who played violin in the orchestra!  You guys sounded wonderful!  But the real message of that special day was reminding myself once again that JESUS HAS CONQUERED DEATH ONCE AND FOR ALL.  

     My small mind just isn't big enough to grasp the full reality of that fact.  Jesus died for us our souls to save and we know its true when the Bible says things like "death is swallowed up by life."  Our sins are completely forgiven and our lives have real hope because of Jesus's perfect sacrifice on the cross.  His resurrection was a sign that God had accepted the atonement.  I can so often lose the real meaning of that and it was good to just worship God for who he really is and what he really has done.  I'm soooo grateful for a church that puts such an important focus on the most significant aspects of the Godspe...whoops, there I go again.  I meant to say Gospel.  Anyway, it is Easter and Jesus has risen.  Hoooooooooooooooooray!!!!!!!!

In Honor Of Christian Zehr...

     That was an amazing post.  Christian attended my Spanish 2 class while he was here playing his part in Godspell as Judas.  Ok, want to hear something bizarre???  Ever since the play this past month, I can't write Gospel without writing Godspell (that sentence took a lot of brain power).  Yes, anyway...It was great getting to know you Christian and seeing the way you brought so much joy and energy into our Spanish class. In my theory, it must come from all the smiley faces you write on your arms.  Stocks of happiness must be quite helpful in most situations :D  If I ever come to Turkey, I'll just look for a purple house with purple shutters, a purple car, a garden with purple flowers, a purple mailbox, and a message written on the driveway with purple chalk.  You can't be that hard to find...

BWI - you did awesome in Godspell :)

~Anna

Good Friday

     Good Friday.  The supposed day of Jesus crucifixion.  Many times the horrible death of Jesus on the cross doesn't seem very important to me because I don't have a correct view of my sin.  When the Holy Spirit allows me to grasp the significance of my sin and the love God showed in sending his only Son to die in my place, I suddenly see why we call him...Savior.  It says in Romans that someone would scarcely die for a righteous person, but God died for sinners!  He died for us, for me, and in return we offer him our lives.  The song, Hallelujah, What a Savior says it much better than I ever could.  

  

Verse 1

Man of Sorrows! what a name

For the Son of God, who came

Ruined sinners to reclaim

Hallelujah! 

Bearing shame and scoffing rude

In my place condemned He stood

Sealed my pardon with His blood

Hallelujah! Hallelujah!

Chorus:

Savior, you showed your love

Defeated our sin and poured out your blood

So we praise you, Lamb that was slain

We offer our lives to proclaim

What a Savior!

Verse 2:

Guilty, vile, and helpless we;

Spotless Lamb of God was He

“Full atonement!” can it be?

Hallelujah!

Lifted up was He to die

“It is finished!” was His cry

Now in Heaven exalted high

Hallelujah! Hallelujah!

Verse 3:

When He comes, our glorious King

All His ransomed home to bring

Then anew His song we’ll sing

Hallelujah! Hallelujah!!!!!

Just 4 You!

Hey guys,
In this post, I'm going to introduce you to my awesome friend, Carrie.

Many of you probably already know her.  She is a very creative, very godly friend and is always smiling :)  I follow her blog: carrieannedesign.com.  She has a photography business going too so be sure to check that out.  If you need some stylish design in your life or just a flash of vibrant color for a change (instead of looking at school textbooks all day)...then visit Carrie's blog!
Thanks for being a great friend Carrie!!!!!!!
~Anna

Sandy is OK!!!

Sandy update guys!

We put Sandy on antibiotics and the lump on his shoulder just seem to disappear.  Praise God!  It was just a bacterial infection. No cancer, no tumor, nothing very serious.  So now my dog is doing awesome and he has just started dog training back up a week ago.  

  

Thanks to everyone who took time to pray for me.  Looking back on it now, I believe that having the uncertainty really helped me grow in patience and dependence on God.  Trusting that God knows what is best for my life is one of the hardest things I struggle with.

The Reality

It takes a humble, discerning heart to realize that we are drifting away from our Savior.  We love sin.  It's true.  God doesn't promise that he will remove our temptations completely.  What he does promise is that he will be with us when we ARE tempted.  He will never leave us, never forget us, never forsake us.  

God is like the center of a circle whose center is everywhere and circumference nowhere.

There are thousands, millions, billions of people on this earth and in the universe.  People we know and people we don't know.  People we've heard about and people we never knew existed.  God cares for each and every one of them.  Just like the stars in the sky, he knows each of us by name.  It's absolutely incredible.    

Often, we can think that God is like us and is there to do our bidding.  But when the Holy Spirit illuminates to us just how sinful we are...just how holy God is...just how far we were separated from God...just how far God had to go to save us...just how unworthy we are of being saved...and where we would have gone if we weren't saved.  The mind-bending reality of that makes you fall on your face and praise God for his mercy.  THE JOY IS IMMEASURABLE!!!!!!!!  I found this verse in my bible time yesterday that I think fits perfectly:

"For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another.  But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he save us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace we might  become heirs according to the hope of eternal life."       ~Titus 3:3-7